: : : : : I looked up scupper in an American dictionary
where it explains that a scupper is a nautical term for the holes at the side
of a ship that allow the water to run off.

: : : : : I have also heard it used
to describe destroying a ship - if not by sinking than grounding. "After passengers
ceased to visit the aging steam boat, the owners scuppered it."

: : : : : So
in the sentence you gave, it means that Microsoft deliberately destroyed the deal
with Compac. And as it happens, that's completely consistent with Microsoft.

:
: : : : I suspect the Brits will find this use of scuppered in their dictionaries
and it will be in the OED of course.

: : : : Scuppering is deliberate.

: :
: Camel is entirely right. To scupper is a nautical term meaning to sink a ship
deliberately by opening the scuppers. To clarify Camel's run-off holes, scuppers
are sealed hatches/holes below the waterline that can be opened to drain the bilges
and/or lower decks if the ship is ever in dry dock. Sir Francis Drake famously
sailed into Cadiz in the 16th century to scupper a large portion of the Spanish
fleet, and many a brave captain has scuppered his own ship during wartime in order
to prevent it falling into enemy hands - as happened with the French naval fleet
at Toulon at the beginning of the 2nd World War.

: : : A strangely similar word
also used to describe the deliberate sinking of a ship is "to scuttle". I have
no idea if this is just coincidence.

: : : As for Microsoft deliberately getting
up to some corporate naughtiness, who'da thunk it from the oh so whiter than white
Church of St. Bill of Seattle?